John Surowiecki is the author of two collections of poetry, The Hat City after Men Stopped Wearing Hats (Word Works, 2007) and Watching Cartoons before Attending a Funeral (White Pine Press, 2003), as well as five chapbooks. In addition, Tapeworm Comics: A Graphic Poem in Celebration of the Adolescent Imagination, a poem in comic-book format.  His next collection of poems, Barney and Gienka—poems about his parents, family and neighbors that take place during a week in June, 1965—will be published in 2010 by CustomWords Press. 

Surowiecki is the recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s first Pegasus Award for verse drama. His play, My Nose and Me (A TragedyLite or TragiDelight in 33 Scenes), was performed at the 2008 AWP convention in New York and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater as part of the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry on Stage series (both directed by Bernie Sahlins) and as part of the Creative Sustenance Program at the University of Connecticut (directed by Denise Abercrombie).

Surowiecki has won the Pablo Neruda Prize (sponsored by Nimrod International Journal) and the Washington Prize, and has received the silver in the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival National Competition. He was also awarded a Poetry Fellowship by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, and he was named 2009 Artist of the Year by the Arts Council in his hometown of Meriden, Connecticut.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

     • Caliban Poems (West Town Press, 2001)
     • Five-hundred Widowers in a Field of Chamomile (Portlandia Group, 2002)
     • Watching Cartoons before Attending a Funeral (White Pine Press, 2003) 

     • Dennis Is Transformed into a Thrush (White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 2004)
     • Further Adventures of My Nose (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2005; reprinted, 2008)

     • Bolivia Street (Burnside Review Press 2006)
     • The Hat City after Men Stopped Wearing Hats (Word Works, 2007)